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On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

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Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#211

Post by haswell »

instagib wrote: post #97
j_bum wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome! When I explain it to people, I always ask them to close their eyes and picture an apple on a table. I then ask them what color the apple is. Everyone I’ve ever done this with (except a sibling) answers a color. I then say, “to me, there is no color, no apple, no table, no outline; nothing.” Always a leads to fun discussion :)

you’re supposed to be able to make an image of an apple appear in your brain by thinking about it? Sounds nice. Well that was a fun side quest for the evening. One thing I read is aphantasia is common among siblings also.

> you’re supposed to be able to make an image of an apple appear in your brain by thinking about it?

This is very similar to how I reacted when I started reading “When the Mind’s Eye is Blind” [0] one day.

Up to that point (I think I was 31 at the time) I had always believed that when people talked about “visualizing” something, it was just a figure of speech. I didn’t realize people meant it literally.

30+ years of situations suddenly clicked and it was like a bomb of realization went off in my brain.

- [0] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-ey...

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#212

Post by bsnnkv »

scarface_74 wrote: post #91
bsnnkv wrote: post #75

I don't have many big regrets, but one of the few I have is not having enough photographs or videos from my teenage years to share with my partner and future generations.

Your partner might care. But I doubt future generations will care. When I see pictures of my grandmother, I of course care. I grew up around her and she didn’t pass until I was 28. Only 2 of my relatives from the next generation were old enough to know her. Everyone else probably just shrugs.

Cool story, but this comment really missed the point.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#213

Post by _glass »

andrehacker wrote: post #30
planck_tonne wrote: post #11

There must be a balance. Recently I met some people that were constantly filming and taking pictures of everything. It was ridiculous IMO, for the same reasons OP mentions. This is not new. For me, it began with the rise of the smartphone. So I made it a point not to waste my time photographing things. 10 years later, I regret having essentially no pictures of anything. In particular, no "good" or "frameable" picture…

When I was young and easily swayed, I took life advice from a well-known Dutch comedian (Youp van 't Hek) who loved to mock tourists taking those cringe “holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa” photos. The message was clear: tourist photos were tacky, and besides, you could always find a better photo in the gift shop anyway. So for years, I smugly avoided taking photos—too cool for clichés. It only hit me much later th…

I missed out so much. When I was a college student, I rejected photos, as digital cameras where everywhere, and I was a snob, in my high school times taking analog camera photo. I read a lot of books about Zen, living in the moment, but now I regret this. The view photos I have I cherish as very dear memories.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#214

Post by zirgs »

vachina wrote: post #130
planck_tonne wrote: post #11

There must be a balance. Recently I met some people that were constantly filming and taking pictures of everything. It was ridiculous IMO, for the same reasons OP mentions. This is not new. For me, it began with the rise of the smartphone. So I made it a point not to waste my time photographing things. 10 years later, I regret having essentially no pictures of anything. In particular, no "good" or "frameable" picture…

Some questions I ask myself before I take the camera out: 1. Is it a picture someone else would’ve already taken? 2. Does it have our faces in it? 3. Will it have historical significance in 10 years time? If all of it answers no, I rest easy knowing I missed nothing.

The guy who took that photo of Barbra Streisand's house had no idea how significant that photo would become later.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#215

Post by Der_Einzige »

This is a heavily gendered phenomenon even though few will talk about it. Women take easily 10x the number of photos as men with their phones (likely underestimating this ratio).

This is a frequent issue today in romance, dating, etc. Men have trash photos and are structurally bad at taking them. Women judge everything today based on pictures. "Camera eats first" is my motto now when I go out with my wife or any other group with significant amounts of women.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#216

Post by squigz »

jclardy wrote: post #192
scrollop wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed that of all the hundreds of thousands of family images I have taken, everyone wants to watch the tens of thousands of videos I took simultaneously. With video, you can recollect better people's personalities, get more of a sense of the moment. Pictures are great, though imho videos surpass.

A problem I have, and I'd guess a lot of people now have, is organization. We have the ability to easily capture content, and even easier now organize it via albums. But you have to build your own "system" of organization. And now we use our camera for mundane things, like screenshots, reminders, documentation, etc. so the amount of new data is just ever increasing. My parents had a camcorder that was out for special…

Can't basic sorting like chronological be handled by file metadata?

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#217

Post by xtiansimon »

submeta wrote: post #162

When you get older, you realize how memories fade, how they disappear, and that’s when you wish you had taken more pictures. I am not talking about young folks shooting photos for the sake of getting likes. I am talking about precious moments, a picture here, a picture there. They will help trigger lost memories. For what is our identity if not a string of recollections we have?

> “…memories fade, how they disappear…”

Photos have a double effect. Look at a photo, and your memory is stimulated. Recall something from your childhood (for example) and there is a good chance your memory is a recollection of the photo and not the sensation of experience.

It’s funny how older generations had fewer photos, in general. Photography was a commitment and not an afterthought.

How many times have I seen on Facebook someone’s picture of a dear relative—out of focus, poor composition, terrible color. And yet it’s cherished image.

I also like movies more than I like sports.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#218

Post by Der_Einzige »

ivape wrote: post #70
Spooky23 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son and I went to Rome, and the ridiculous behaviors from people getting their must have shots is ridiculous. My favorite shots are selfies… one with the two of us on the tarmac in front of the plane on arrival, the other on a random street. I lost my wife to cancer, and regret that pre-kid, we took very few pictures relatively speaking, and I cherish the ones I have.

When you watch those episodes of Maury where they have a father-less baby up on stage, and they are trying to figure who the daddy is, you have to contend with the fact that there's an entire audience in-person and at-home that are just taking part in the sheer entertainment of what will ultimately be that child's most embarrassing and deep sorrow in life. Not only that, but we film the spectacle. This was a hit show…

Hell is other people. Why? Because of The gaze.

Re: On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

#219

Post by abnormaldoorway »

TL;DR: I can't distinguish between a good and a bad moment to pull out the camera, so it must be the camera's fault (?).

The camera is just a tool, and it behaves how you want it to.

If you're actively trying to get a good photo, you're obviously busy doing that. But if you're in the middle of a beautiful moment and pull it out just to capture a memory, it won’t distract you as much.

Honestly, this piece makes much more sense if you think it's bait—as if it were written by the friend of the author who got interrupted mid-conversation by him. It reads like a reminder for him to "touch grass," bluntly claiming that his obsession with taking pictures caused his divorce.

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